The 5 Best Ways To Get Slow Payers To Pay Up!

1) Call and ask them to pay you.

I can’t tell you how many times we see business people who just keep sending out paper invoices and billing notices telling people they want to get paid. Stop wasting so much money sending out notices and get on the phone and ask for your money. There can be many reasons that people don’t pay, but getting them on the phone and giving them a friendly reminder that their invoice has not been paid is the best way to get your dough!

2) Ask for a credit card to have on file for future payments.

If you can afford to pay the extra 2% or so that it will cost you to process their payment on their credit card, start taking credit cards. In your future pricing you can always make adjustments to recoup that 2 or more percent. If they don’t want to make their payments with their credit card then let them know you need the payment within your payment term guidelines.

3) Get your invoices out to your customers in a timely manner.

Many companies do not send out their invoices in a timely manner and because of this they cause their own collection issues. If you give customers 30 days to pay and it takes you 15 days to get the invoice out…maybe this is why people aren’t paying you timely. Let your customers know that getting paid is a priority to you!

4) Shorten your payment terms from 30 days to 15 days.

Who says you have to give people 30 days to pay? It’s your business, change the payment terms. If people are already using your product or service every day why do you need to give them so long to pay for it?

5) Give them a discount to pay faster.

Ideally you will only want to do this for future sales, but it may be just the incentive your slow payers need to get you paid up. Keep in mind, the discount should not be so large that you are giving away your profit. If the discount is around 2% and they pay by cash or check you end up in the same position you would have, if they had paid by credit card. If possible build this discount back into your pricing the next time you do business with this customer.